Search age:

Search in:

Finance News Update, what you need to know

The Australian dollar is higher after the US Federal Reserve downwardly revised its economic growth forecasts.

At 0630 AEST on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 94.07 US cents, up from 93.36 cents on Wednesday.

And the Australian share market looks set to open higher after Wall Street's S&P 500 bolted to a new record following the Federal Reserve's decision to keep its interest rates ultra low.

Advertisement

At 0645 AEST on Thursday, the June share price index futures contract was up 18 points at 5,400.

ELSEWHERE:

WASHINGTON - The US Federal Reserve will further slow the pace of its bond purchases because a strengthening US job market needs less support.

NICOSIA - Cyprus has returned to international debt markets, just a little over a year after being forced to accept a bailout, with a five-year bond issue.

SHANGHAI - China is about to start direct trade between its yuan currency and Britain's pound, the country's foreign exchange trade platform says, in another step in its push to internationalise the unit.

BEIJING - A Chinese mining group allegedly used the same commodity stocks as collateral for loans of more than $A2.78 billion from different banks, state-run media reports, with its other lenders also including Standard Chartered, HSBC, and BNP Paribas.

NEW YORK - Valeant Pharmaceuticals says it has launched a bid for Allergan, the maker of Botox.

PARIS - General Electric is set to make an improved offer for parts of French power-to-rail group Alstom by the end of the week, informed sources say.

DALLAS - FedEx says its quarterly profit rose as growth in online shopping gave its ground-shipping business a lift.

WASHINGTON - General Motors chief executive Mary Barra has faced a grilling from US lawmakers investigating the company's delayed ignition recall that is tied to at least 13 deaths.

OTTAWA - Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has announced a deal with Amazon giving its users access to more than 240,000 software applications from the online retailer's Appstore.